Posted on by solangesuri2015

Wickedness is not Necessary, Just Convenient

As humans, we are challenged everyday.
We live in a world where it’s easier to learn
Lessons of disrespect, domination and control
Than those of kindness, love and compassion.
Power today has little authority
And is vested with the obnoxious.

We’ve begun to believe
That humans are despicable
An inconvenient cost factor in a world
Where everything is evaluated
In terms of profit and loss
And as such, must be managed and controlled.

Our intelligence has narrowed
And so have our hearts.
We refuse to feel lest we be perceived
As being weak and fallible.
We merely function in the world today
We have forgotten the art of living.

The world is no longer free
Humanity has delusionally fragmented itself
And needs unsustainable wealth, power and control
To save the few at the cost of all.
We’re enslaved by our beliefs and conveniences
And by the false promises we’re sold.

We’re no longer a globe of wonder and myth
We’ve reshaped the world into infrastructure
That serves agendas of domination.
We’ve sold our dreams to this nightmare of reality
Where fictions have their basis in fact.
Numbers, I’m told, do not lie.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Forgive, Because You Are Human

Forgiveness is love.
It is to give your kindness
To those who show you none.

Relationships are not equal
They are not always reciprocal.
But they are…they exist
And one is called upon by life
To honour existence.

One can’t bend what is
To one’s liking
To question existence
Is to be faced with what it is
As an answer.

Forgiveness is a tough lesson.
It is honouring, accepting and letting go–
All at once.
In forgiving, we don’t come closer
We move beyond.

We create space
We trust in the power of love
To heal, to help, to transform.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Step Out. Leave the Story.

The memories
Of the desires I carried
Are still vivid in my mind.

But memory is a ghost
That can no longer
Engage the present.

It just lives on
Like the relic of an entity
That once was.

One can remember it
Perhaps even taste
Its bittersweetness.

But in order
To live and love today
I must be free of my yesterdays.

I must ask
Do I still want now
What I had longed for then?

And I must have the courage
To step out of a story
That narrates my life to me.

I must close the book
I must reclaim my authorship
And write what remains unwritten.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

A Mature Education

To realize is greater than
To be informed.

To understand is greater than
To simply know.

To offer is greater than
To be provided.

To lose is greater than
To possess.

To have faith is greater than
To have certainty.

To enjoy yourself in solitude is greater than
Enjoying yourself in company.

To be awakened by a question is greater than
Being asleep on given answers.

To be merged in silence is greater than
Standing out in eloquence.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Culture

I’ve often wondered about nakedness
Not just of the body
But also of the mind…
And how we’ve constructed
The meaning of virtue with so much nuance.

The human is a creature of meaning;
Of perception enhanced by learning.
We understand the extent of a day
By learning to ‘see’ the night.
Differences perceived make clear the definition.

The dressed body is intentional
It is a desire to be seen on one’s own terms
Not simply as a naked truth
But as a presence that is simultaneously
Human and divine; here and beyond.

We must dress up, not because we are vain
But because we are seeking who we are–
Not just naked bodies, but in our nakedness,
We are a vast cosmos of possibilities.
Through dress, we come to see newer versions of ourselves.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

To Sustain Life, Allow for Change

Time is the playground of life.
Do something daily, consistently
And it becomes a habit.
But a habit can, over time, become a prison.

Break the habit;
And you’ll create the new.
When you create the new
The old and the familiar starts slipping away.

The new must now be fixed.
To replace the old and the familiar
It must achieve a new rhythm
It must become ingrained as a habit.

But a habit can, over time, become a prison.
It can make you numb to experience
Keep playing then. Be the destroyer,
The sustainer and creator on the playground of time.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

The Lines And What Lies Between Them

What absences do you feel?
What do you feel
Is missing from your life?

What presences are you ignoring?
What are you refusing to see
That patiently awaits your attention?

While life must be lived
And its pains and pleasures experienced;
Life’s beauty lies in being read
In being noticed and beheld.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

What Do You Know?

Knowledge is a gain
That comes to those
Who sincerely seek it.

Books hold stories, theories
And philosophies.
On their own
They’re not knowledge.

Experiences too,
Are granted to all
But on their own
They don’t yield knowledge.

Knowledge is an invocation.
For knowledge to enlighten
There must first be
An awareness of darkness.
There must be acceptance
That one does not know.
There must be a question…
There must be wonder…

There must be the recognition
That Existence is the greatest teacher
But to Existence one must go.
She will not come to you
At a scheduled hour.

Have you ever wondered
What the trees know?
Or the wind?
Or waters that travel
Fearlessly across lands
To reach the vastness of the ocean?

What knowledge do they hold?
What knowledge holds them?
And do they ‘know’ about it?
Or is their knowledge of a different type?

Must knowledge be about mastery?
Does its value lie in its saleability?
What value does understanding have?
Must we know how to survive above all?
Or, must we know what it means to give
And how to sacrifice, and how to die
For the sake of something greater?

That is what is worthy of seeking
How the ordinary is so rich
With promise; seemingly simple
Yet so phenomenal.
So self-contained and yet so giving.
So weak, yet so strong.
Knowledge is important
So that you don’t waste your life becoming
That which you never were.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

When Will Wisdom Come?

When will wisdom come?
When you have lived a life
Of many detours…and many turns?
Or when unimpressed
With the map of the world
You reach for the stars?
Or when reality makes demands on you
But you leave to live your dream?

When will wisdom come?
When you walk the tried and tested path
Laid down by those who walked before?
Or when you seek recourse in religion
To be saved from a pervasive evil?
Or, as a pledge to the highest in humanity
You stay non-violent…
And hurt no one.

But is wisdom the child of intent?
Or the joy of escape?
Or the reward for resolve?
Or the unleashing of wild passions?
Or, is it a light that beams through you
When you have discovered
Along the way
How to be happy.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Space in the City

Silence is a magnetic field
Created by a repulsion
To noise.

I have lived in city spaces
Where noisy roads
Are neighbours to islands of calm
Found in temples or parks…
Or in the little lane
That makes a quick exit
From a busy street.
Or in the silences held in homes
Where the sound of utensils in the kitchen
Or a pressure cooker whistling
Are the only sounds that tell you
That a family resides there.

The city with its speed and noise
Is ironically the providence you need
To cultivate your own field of silence.